The fifth place Oilers take on the seventh place Columbus Blue Jackets tonight. I’m positive that is the first time we’ve ever been able to write that sentence, as both teams are off to good starts. The Oilers, 5-2-1 are two points back of the Flames, while the Jackets, 5-2-0 are one point behind Chicago in the Central with two games in hand.

Gilbert Brule didn’t skate this morning and it seems unlikely that he will play tonight. Mike Comrie is also under the weather a bit, but word is they think he will be able to gut it out tonight. Ladislav Smid was back on the ice and it looks like he’ll go.

With Brule out, that means Steve MacIntyre will draw in, but expect a mixed bag of lines tonight.

Line rushes didn’t show us anything to tip us off. The new combinations of Dustin Penner/Sam Gagner/Ales Hemsky and Mike Comrie/Shawn Horcoff/Patrick O’Sullivan will be used, but with Brule out they might have to juggle and move Comrie into the middle.

We might see:

Penner – Gagner – Hemsky

Nilsson – Horcoff – O'Sullivan

Jacques – Cogliano – Moreau

MacIntyre – Comrie – Stortini

That is just a guess, but I don’t think you’ll see four set lines tonight. And if Mike Comrie gets worse who will they call up? Jordan Eberle is dominating the WHL and the Regina Pats have today and tomorrow off. Eberle has eleven goals, nineteen points so far this year. Regina is a much closer flight than Springfield so you never know.

This is the Oilers 7th home game out of their first nine, and a win tonight would get them the good start at home they wanted with a 5-1-1 record.

The Blue Jackets are 2-2 on the road this year, but in two of those games they’ve given up six goals, losing 6-3 to both San Jose and Calgary. In their other five games the Jackets have given up six goals, so when they are on they are very good defensively, but if the Oilers can get to them early they’ve shown a tendency to give up a lot.

At the end of practice Zack Stortini was taking draws. Will Pat Quinn put a grind line of Stortini, MacIntyre and Moreau together tonight at times? We will see. If that happens, then Cogliano moves up between Nilsson and Jacques, which might work.

It is all speculation right now as to what the lines might look like, and I really don’t think it matters that much to be honest.

Regardless of who plays together, if they continue to play Quinn’s aggressive style they should be alright.

And Khabibulin left the ice right after practice, so he will get the start tonight.

Lunchtime Update!

Well my idea of Eberle won't happen. The Oilers confirmed that the flu bug is not a good enough reason to get an emergency call up for Eberle. They looked into and the league says that this case wouldn't fall under the guidelines of emergency call up. So no Eberle.

I was correct though with my hunch of Stortini in the middle.

He will play centre between Moreau and MacIntyre. Stortini played some centre in junior and his first year in the AHL he played centre in Iowa and Milwaukee. He also played the middle this preseason against Tampa Bay. So he has played there before.

Cogliano will move up and centre Jacques and Nilsson.

One of Canada's most versatile sports personalities. Jason hosts The Jason Gregor Show, weekdays from 2 to 6 p.m., on TSN 1260, and he writes a column every Monday in the Edmonton Journal. You can follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/JasonGregor

Happy to see SMac draw in tonight, even if he only gets 5 min of ice time over the entire night. The Moreau-Storts-SMac line could be a lot of fun to watch crash into a few people.

And very happy to see Smid feeling well enough to play. That kid is really coming into his game this season. I've been quietly rooting for him for the past 2 years, great to see him living up to my expectations!

On a totally unrelated note, anybody else glad our 'bad' luck in the UFA pool/ trade block over the past few years has actually turned into a positive?

Nylander- Sent down on a $4.875mil conditioning stint.

Hossa- Shoulder injury, out for the start of the year.

Jagr- Would have taken a roster spot away from Brule/Jacques/Comrie or most likely facilitated a Penner trade

Heatley- Smid: Top 5 +/- in the league.
Penner: Looking like he did in Anaheim.
Cogliano: Playing pretty much every role asked of him so far very well.

Not at all Happy.

Nylander - Ill agree with

Hossa - Shoulder injury probably wouldnt have happened as he would have been here last season

Jagr - I still want Jagr at the end of this season because he knows he might not play first line and said he would make a damn fine third liner which I agree with.

Heatley - A Dustin Penner amazing start isn't even equal to Heatley playing "okay". The ones who lost in this were the Senators. Michalek 4 pts, Cheechoo 2. For all of Murrays posturing he got screwed. Which I am glad to see after he leaked our players names.

But 3/4 of those still would have been great moves, and 2 of them would have been our biggest name FW'd added in over 15 years.

If they bring up Reddox does he have to clear waivers, or is it only when they put send him to the minors?

A guy has to clear waivers on the way down, and on the way back up. Difference is that on the way back up a player can be claimed on Re-callable waivers, which means that the team who picks him up can get him for half his salary while the Oilers would be on the hook for the other half.

@Ogden Brother Jr.

Smid says he is feeling better and his fever is gone. Hemsky looks fine now, Comrie didn't even skate this morning and was sent home, so he'll be the worst health wise.

The nhl should rethink their rules a bit. The flu hits without warning and teams may not have enough players to ice. This means players are forced to play sick and risk infecting team mates. This problem is further magnified when we have the H1N1 going around.

My office pool rewards for penalty minutes for enforcer-types. As long as Stortini logs a few I'll be happy. Based on our calculations, Storts is only 1 point shy of Ovechkin - he's in a tie for 2nd overall right now.

man, the boys get no respect....I'm sick of hearing panelists say that they wouldn't be as good as they are without Khabby. Although it's impossible to disagree that Khabby has stolen a couple games (i.e Monday agianst Van), nobody talks about the fact that they are one of the highest scoring teams in the league, with a depleted defense and illness. There are holes in thier game, like the pp, but that will get better as they get healthy.